1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a camera, and relates to an object tracing mechanism of the camera which makes it possible to follow up an object to be photographed.
2. Description of the Related Arts
Conventionally, there has been proposed an auto-focusing camera of a type in which its focusing area (focusing region) can be switched. The auto-focusing camera of this type has a following problem. Namely, provided that a right-hand focusing area 2c, for example, of three focusing areas 2a, 2b, 2c is selected and an object (or a subject) M is brought into a focus as shown in FIG. 1(A), and provided that the object M is moved in the left direction as shown in FIG. 1(B), it is not possible to bring the object M into the focus unless a photographer switches the focusing area from the right-hand focusing area 2c to the left-hand focusing area 2a.
On the other hand, conventionally, there has been proposed a camera of another type in which a focusing area is automatically determined by foreseeing a movement of the object from its change of contrast for example, so as to execute the focusing operation. According to this type of camera, however, in case that a plurality of objects M1 to M8, to be photographed, move as shown in FIG. 2, a photographer cannot voluntarily select a main object (or a main subject), to be photographed, out of the whole objects. Therefore, which object should be followed, or traced, to be focused on, depends upon the camera itself; namely, the photographer cannot select a particular main object to be focused on.